1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image forming apparatuses and electronizing methods (putting into electronic form) for information mentioned (included) in papers, and more specifically, an image forming apparatus generating image data by reading information mentioned in a paper and an electronizing method for information mentioned in a paper.
2. Description of the Related Art
As high computerization in society is improved, it is desired to electronically store a document which had to be conventionally preserved in a paper format, as an electronic document. However, as compared with the paper document, the electronic document has problems such as the electronic document can be tampered with while leaving no trace of the tampering, the electronic document is invisible, and the ability to preserve the electronic document in the long term is degraded. It is not permitted to preserve (designate) the electronic document as an original document without solving the above-mentioned problems. As a method for solving the problems, a system for securing the same originality as the paper document for the electronic document has been proposed and may be spread. See Japan Laid Open Patent Application Publication Nos. 2000-215379, 2002-230202, 2003-224728, 2003-318885, and 2001-339543.
Such a system is used for ensuring originality the same as the paper document for digital data generated by a digital machine such as a personal computer. Therefore, in order to exchange the paper which is originally the original for electronic data, it is necessary to ensure that the contents of the electronic data are the same as the contents of the paper document. This is because the image data may be tampered with or secretly changed to other data after the paper document is scanned, and the paper document may be worked when being scanned so that the contents of the paper document are changed or the paper document itself is secretly changed. Hence, there is a problem in that the image data generated by scanning the paper document has a low value as evidence.